A-maze-ing Memories (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
by ilna
Summary: The family discusses their trip to the local pumpkin patch, and Steve and Catherine remember another trip from years ago.


**Notes:** Mari and Sammy - thanks for your support the past few days. And happy early birthday to Sammy!

Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support. It is always appreciated.

 **Hope you enjoy!**

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 _A-maze-ing Memories (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)_

"Okay, favorite parts of the pumpkin patch," Chin said as the group walked back toward their cars. "Youngest to oldest."

"Go, Jacob," Kaitlyn said, looking at her younger brother.

"Hey, I'm not the youngest anymore," he protested, turning to pull hard on a wagon that held his, Kaitlyn's, and Jenna's pumpkins. "Angie is!"

"Well, Angie's pretty much conked out," Steve said, glancing down at the sleeping toddler in the stroller he was pushing. Her excitement at spending Saturday morning at the pumpkin patch with her extended family and all the new experiences there had worn her out and she'd fallen asleep while they were paying for their pumpkins on the way out.

Catherine walked beside him, toting the pumpkin they'd helped Angie pick. "But if she was awake, I think she'd say her favorite parts were seeing the animals and climbing around in the actual pumpkin patch."

"She was adorable climbing on top of the pumpkins," Elizabeth said.

"Like it was her own pumpkin obstacle course," Dylan chimed in, pulling the Allens' other wagon of pumpkins.

"I hope you got lots of pictures, Elizabeth," Ang said, holding a small pumpkin in her lap as Joseph pushed her in a wheelchair provided by the farm.

"Pictures?" Elizabeth said with a grin. "I got video."

"Oh good," Leilani said. "That was too cute."

"So with Angie asleep, that makes you the youngest _awake_ person, Jacob," Casey said.

"Okay," he said, giving the wagon an exaggerated tug to get it over a rut in the ground as Cody lifted the back end to help. "I liked the hayride the best. It was so funny how that guy said he'd have to save a whole wagon for our family because there's so many of us!"

"There are indeed," Chin agreed. "But I'm with you, Jacob. The hayride was great."

"What about you, Kaitlyn?" Kono asked. She smiled knowingly. "Though I have a pretty good guess …"

"The animals!" Kaitlyn said without hesitation, skipping a little in her excitement. "Those baby goats were sooooooo cute."

"Oh, I know," Grace agreed. "So cute!"

"Baby goats are the cutest animals ever," Kaitlyn bubbled. She held up a finger. "Except for Midnight."

"Well, of course," Danny said with a chuckle, pulling the wagon that held his, Gabby's, and Grace's pumpkins. "Hey, speaking of Midnight, are you going to have a little birthday party for him next week? I mean, I know it's not _technically_ his birthday, but you did find him on Halloween."

"Ohhh!" Kaitlyn said, her eyes lighting up.

"That's a great idea," Grace said. "We could make a little birthday hat for him."

"Yeah! And sing 'Happy Birthday,' " Kaitlyn continued excitedly. Her face grew thoughtful. "I wonder if I could make a cupcake out of cat food …"

"Oh boy," Jenna said, raising her eyes to the sky. "I think our kitchen is about to become a pet bakery."

Casey snorted. "As long as we don't have to be taste testers."

"I dunno," Cody said, nudging his brother. "Dylan might volunteer for that."

"Hey, you put enough ketchup on anything …" Dylan joked.

"Eww, gross!" Jess said, laughing even as she faked a gag.

"Well, I know something that didn't need ketchup," Gabby said. "That sweet corn."

"Ohh, you are so right," Jenna said. "That was delicious. And I bet it was Dylan's favorite part of the morning, right?"

He grinned. "Yeah, probably."

" 'Probaby'?" Chin teased. "You ate three ears!"

"At least I didn't have as many as Uncle Joseph," Dylan countered.

"Well, at a dollar an ear," Joseph said with a shrug, "they were hard to resist."

"You're not kiddin'," Ang agreed.

"Okay, so Dylan liked the sweet corn best," Steve said. "What about you, Gracie?"

"I love the sunflowers," Grace said dreamily. "They're so bright and happy. Like a little bit of sunshine right in front of you."

"Aww," Catherine said, smiling back at her.

"You're up, Case," Kono said.

"Probably the animals, too," Casey said. She glanced at her sister and smiled. "Except I think the pigs were the cutest."

"Ohh, yeah, they were so cute," Kaitlyn agreed.

"And the sweet corn was pretty great," Casey added. She winked at Dylan. "Even though I only had two ears."

"It was all right," Danny said. "But I miss Jersey corn. Talk about sweet."

"Oh yum," Grace said. "Jersey corn."

"And you know what else?" Danny continued. "I miss a good ol' fashioned corn maze."

Steve and Catherine exchanged a quick smile.

Danny looked at Steve. "What? You've never done a corn maze?"

"Oh, I've done a corn maze," Steve assured him.

 **October 1998**

" _So what's there to do here?" John asked as the six friends looked around the expansive pumpkin patch twenty minutes southeast of the Naval Academy. "I mean, besides the obvious pumpkin-picking."_

 _Catherine scanned the brochure she'd picked up on the way in. "Let's see. Hayrides, peddle tractors …" When Freddie looked interested at that she clarified, "I'm pretty sure those are just for kids." He sighed and Catherine continued reading. "Farm animals, a corn maze–"_

" _Ooh, a corn maze," Kelly said, grabbing Freddie's arm. "Let's do that first."_

" _What's a corn maze?" Steve asked._

 _Carrie quirked an eyebrow. "Seriously, McGarrett?"_

" _Exactly what it sounds like," Freddie said. "A maze made out of corn."_

" _That doesn't sound very challenging," Steve said._

" _They can be," Kelly told him. "When I was a kid, there was a huge corn maze at the pumpkin patch near our town. It seemed like every year someone got super lost and had to be rescued."_

 _Steve looked skeptical. "Rescued? Come on."_

 _Kelly shrugged. "In a big enough maze, it could happen."_

" _Well, this one is three acres," Catherine said, "so not huge but … not exactly small either." She looked at the others. "Should we give it a try?"_

" _I'm game," John said._

" _Sure," Carrie agreed._

 _Freddie and Kelly nodded and they all looked at Steve._

 _He shrugged. "All right, corn maze."_

 _They made their way over to the attraction and bought tickets from the teenager in the booth._

 _"You're good to go," he said. "It should take about thirty minutes to complete the maze."_

" _You've gotta be kidding," Steve said, lip curling in disbelief. "To get out of a maze?"_

 _The teen glanced around, then leaned forward to speak conspiratorially. "No. But we're just supposed to tell people that so they don't freak out if they're in there longer than they expected. It'll probably take you about fifteen minutes."_

 _Steve nodded. "So, ten."_

 _The teen pointed toward the entrance. "There's a fork in the path as soon as you go in. All three paths eventually make it out if you take the correct turns after that."_

" _All right," Catherine said, smiling at him. "Thank you."_

 _He blushed at the attention. "Yeah … umm … sure. There are … er … uh … there are maze staff inside in case you get … you know … stuck."_

" _That's not gonna happen," Steve said tersely._

 _Catherine chuckled at his reaction and smiled at the teenager again. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Thanks again."_

" _Um … er … you're … you're welcome," he stammered as they headed into the maze._

" _Jeez, Cath, you had to rile the poor kid up?" Carrie teased._

" _What? I just smiled and said thank you," Catherine protested._

" _He's probably going to give out the wrong change for the next half hour."_

 _Kelly, John, and Freddie snickered and Catherine just shook her head. They came to where the path forked off into three directions and stopped._

 _"This way," Steve said immediately, pointing to the right._

 _"Why that way?" Carrie asked. "The kid said all the paths lead to the end eventually."_

 _"Wait wait wait," Freddie said. "I got an idea. Since McGarrett thinks this is going to be boring …"_

" _I didn't say it would be boring," Steve corrected. "Just that it wouldn't be challenging."_

 _Carrie rolled her eyes. "Which translates from McGarrett to English as 'boring.' "_

" _Yeah, so let's make it interesting," Freddie continued. "A competition."_

" _Three paths, three teams?" John asked, following his train of thought._

" _Last ones out buy everyone's apple cider," Freddie said._

" _All right," Steve said, looking around at the others who are nodding their agreement._

" _So what teams?" Catherine began. She smiled wryly, looking at Freddie with his arm looped around Kelly's shoulders, and John and Carrie standing close together. "Or do I even need to ask?" She glanced at Steve who shrugged and answered without hesitation._

" _Works for me."_

 _Freddie snorted. "I'll bet."_

 _Steve flashed him a look but Freddie just smiled back._

 _They lined up at the paths nearest to where they were standing and looked at each other._

 _Kelly grinned. "On your mark …"_

" _Get set …" Carrie continued._

" _Go!" Catherine finished, and they all took off._

"Well, of course you made it a competition," Danny said as they finally reached their group of vehicles.

"The competition wasn't actually my idea," Steve said.

Catherine laughed. "But if Freddie hadn't suggested it, you would have."

Steve glanced at her and grinned. "Yeah, probably."

"No surprise there," Chin said, chuckling lightly.

"So let me guess: you two won," Kono said.

"Well, yeah," Steve stated as if it were obvious.

"But Carrie and John weren't too far behind," Catherine said.

"Freddie and Kelly on the other hand … came in a distant third," he said, sharing a smile with Catherine.

"Really?" Joseph asked. "I would've thought he'd be just as competitive as you."

"Oh, he was," Steve said. A small smile formed on his face. "He just got a little … distracted." His smile grew as he remembered his roommate's huge grin when he and Kelly finally exited the maze.

" _What can I say? We took a wrong turn."_

"And that right there is my favorite part of the day," Elizabeth said, smiling at Steve's expression.

"Mom?" Catherine asked.

"Making memories with friends and family that last a lifetime."

Steve smiled, looking down at a still sleeping Angie and at the other happy faces around him.

"You're right, Elizabeth," he said, his smile widening. "As always. And we made a bunch of amazing new ones today."

"Don't you mean 'a-maze-ing'? " Danny joked.

Grace and Gabby groaned in unison.

"Danno!" Grace said. "We didn't even do a maze today."

"Hey, you know, I bet they could make a maze out of the sunflower patch," Danny continued as if he hadn't heard. "I'm gonna suggest that for next year."

"Quick, into the cars before he thinks of more puns," Gabby teased.

As the others started loading pumpkins into their vehicles, Steve looked at Catherine who had set their pumpkin down in the back of the truck.

"Sunflower maze, corn maze, straw maze," he began. "Whatever Danny convinces 'em to do, you promise to be on my team?"

She smiled. "Works for me," she said, echoing his words from twenty years ago. She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. "No one else I'd rather solve problems and make memories with."

He returned her kiss with one of his own, his arms coming around her waist. "You know … I was a little envious of Freddie that day," he said softly. "Getting to do with Kelly what I wanted to do with you."

"You seemed pretty focused on solving the maze," she countered, one hand running slowly up and down his arm.

"Had to focus on that, otherwise I would've done this …" he said, kissing her again.

She smiled. "I know the feeling." Her smile widened and she put a hand on his chest. "Tell you what. Next corn maze … we'll make some new memories, okay?"

He grinned, leaning down for one more kiss. "Works for me." Straightening, he looked at Angie, sleeping peacefully in her stroller. "But for now, let's go home. "We've got pumpkin carving memories to make."

Catherine smiled broadly. "I can't wait."

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 **Hope you enjoyed!**

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